“Yes, Pierce Brosnan of James Bond fame is still smoking hot at 63. But did he have to make such a giant deal out of our Texas heat while chatting about filming “The Son” in Austin?

Yes, Jessica Lange is a great actress. But did she have to be so entertaining while discussing Alamo City native Joan Crawford’s drunken moments when, as Lange put it, “that San Antonio thing” would come through?

It’s moments like these, however, that make a Texas gal like myself sit up and feel energized during what we TV writers call the biannual death march known as the Television Critics Association press tour. The January arm takes place in Pasadena, California — 14 consecutive 12-hour days of press conferences, screenings and one-on-one interviews about new shows and movies.

Video: There Will Be A New AMC Series Starring Pierce Brosnan Called "The Son"

First up, Brosnan, who portrays patriarch Eli McCullough in “The Son,” AMC’s 10-episode adaptation of Philipp Meyer’s best seller. It will air on both AMC and SundanceTV beginning April 8. The sweeping saga spans 150 years and three generations of the McCulloughs, a Texas ranching family bent on making a new fortune from oil.

Asked what it was like shooting the series in Austin last summer, Brosnan declared, “It was hotter than sin.”

He went on to say how happy he was to get the plum role of Eli McCullough. “The story and the cast were just amazing,” he said.

However, he kept emphasizing the brutal Central Texas heat.

“It was darn hot. That’s for sure,” Brosnan said. “When you wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and there’s a heat advisory saying do not go out and and you’re on a hot horse on a hot land at 9 o’clock, it can be a long day.”

My ears also perked up when San Antonio was mentioned in FX’s session for “Feud: Bette and Joan,” which tells the story of the legendary rivalry between Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) during their collaboration on the 1962 thriller “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” The eight-part series, which debuts March 5, explores how the two women endured ageism and sexism while struggling to hang onto success in the twilight of their careers.

Lange does a good job of channeling Crawford, whom Davis calls Lucille in the series (she was born Lucille LeSueur in San Antonio). She spoke to us about the massive research she did for the role — reading biography after biography and watching whatever interview footage she could get her hands on.

“For me, the thing with Joan is she was never not on,” Lange said. “When she was in public, she was performing, so it was very hard to find a moment where you could really discern what the heart and soul of that character was.

“This is what determined who she was: The physical abuse, sexual abuse, the poverty, all these things, she was constantly fighting against for the rest of her life. She had a fifth-grade education. She says, ‘Everything I learned, I was taught by MGM: How to walk, how to speak, how to present your face.’”

As an actor, Lange said, she was interested in when that artifice falls away.

“There are a few little hints that I got,” she said. “If you listen to Crawford, she spoke the way a lot of actors, especially coming out of the silent films, were taught to speak by the studios and by the dialect coaches that were brought in from New York, this very kind of upper class, mid-Atlantic accent.

“And a couple times I heard this San Antonio thing come through. Whether she was drunk, while giving an interview, or caught off guard … So there are moments where everything falls away and there is this kind of ugliness and brutality to her.”

After the session, I asked Lange to elaborate on that “San Antonio thing.” She was more than happy to — getting into character as she did. She recalled an interview she saw when Crawford had had a few too many.

“She was trying very hard to enunciate that MGM speak,” she said, “and at some point some children approach her.”

With that, Lange imitated Crawford’s more natural “How are you?” to the kids, affecting a deliciously sloppy Texas drawl.

Helen Mirren wasn’t actually part of PBS’ segment of the tour, but her naughty spirit popped up when the grande dame of the Masterpiece brand, executive producer Rebecca Eaton, introduced the “Prime Suspect” prequel that debuts this summer. It follows Jane Tennison (Stefanie Martini, “Emerald City”) as she joins the Metropolitan Police Force at 23 in the early ’70s, when it was still a man’s world.

But 25 years ago it was Mirren’s role, Eaton said. “And you know what happened then? It became a huge hit. There were six or seven years of it. We used to refer to them as PS1, PS2, PS3. Helen called it PMS 1, PMS 2, PMS 3.”

Although a lot of secrecy surrounds the new “Fargo,” which hits TV in April, some of the actors did say a few things about their characters. For instance, Scottish actor Ewan McGregor plays two brothers, Emmit and Ray Stussy. Emmit is successful, the Parking Lot King of Minnesota — a handsome real-estate mogul and family man.

Ray is a balding, pot-bellied parole officer who’s resentful about the hand he’s been dealt. Each speaks in a different Minnesota accent, which McGregor described as extremely difficult to master.

He got the biggest laugh when he spoke about portraying two characters, something he’s done a couple of times before in “The Island” and “Last Days in the Desert.” “I’m very experienced at playing with myself,” he quipped.

Giancarlo Esposito’s delayed entrance to the “Better Call Saul” panel was not only a lovely surprise, but a delicious one. He’ll play a younger, “more immature” version of “Breaking Bad’s” meth supplier and fast-food king Gustavo Fring, he said, and his revelation was accompanied by a gift to each TV critic, a box of Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken.